Contested Koch Stake Outs Fourth-Richest American Woman Marshall

Just wanted to make sure you saw this latest story on the latest hidden billionaire on the Bloomberg Billionaires index: she’s the fourth-richest woman in the U.S., but has never appeared on an international wealth ranking.

Contested Koch Stake Outs Fourth-Richest American Woman Marshall

By David de Jong

Elaine Tettemer Marshall, the fourth-richest woman in the U.S., has avoided the spotlight though her estate has been at the center of two U.S. Supreme Court cases involving her mother-in-law, Anna Nicole Smith.

Marshall controls almost 15% of Koch Industries and is worth $12.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which expanded today to 100 names on the Bloomberg Professional Service. The only American women richer are Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heiresses Alice Walton and Christy Walton, and 71-year-old candy scion Jacqueline Mars .Though Marshall gained control of the Koch stake following the death of her husband, E. Pierce Marshall, in 2006, she has never appeared on an international wealth ranking.

“The Marshalls have never been a lightning rod, because they’ve never been in the public view financially,” said Richard Lieb, a research professor of bankruptcy law at St. John’s University School of Law in New York, who filed briefs to the Supreme Court with his students when the cases regarding her estate were being heard. “No one went after them to find out what their evil deeds were, if any.”